Thursday, July 17, 2014

Race #263 - Athletic Quilt Street Light 5k - Morganton, NC - 07/12/14

To say there's not much advance promotion for this race is an understatement. There's no website or even a Facebook page, which could be set up for free in about 5 minutes. I couldn't even find an address for it until I saw that somebody on Facebook had posted the address of the Roses store in Morganton. Having said all that, it was their 20th annual race and word of mouth over the years has resulted in it becoming a popular race even without any promotion. It's a nighttime race, beginning at 9:30 p.m. There are enough street lights that the entire out-and-back course is lit pretty well except in just a handful of areas. There aren't any hills at all and no turns to slow you down so it should be a really fast course, but most nights in the middle of July are hot and muggy and that generally slows things down. On this night it was really muggy, resulting in several people dropping out, and there was also at least one runner who needed an ambulance. From what I've heard, that runner recovered okay, but it was definitely a hot one.

Something about this race brings older runners out of the woodwork, with all of the older age groups being more competitive than at almost any race I know of. I managed to squeak by Daryl Simpson of Virginia by less than a minute to win the 60-64 age group. The 65-69 age group was even more competitive, with four runners finishing from 23:17 to 24:54. Two runners in their 70s finished in under 30 minutes.

Pros:

Money Drawing: Probably the biggest appeal of the race is that after the race part of the proceeds are given back to the runners at a drawing. It changes from year to year but this time around they gave $40 to ten different people and a grand prize of $100 to one lucky runner for a grand total of $500. This year I didn't go home with any of the loot, but when I ran here a few years ago I won $50 in the drawing.

Low Cost: This is one of the rare races that knocks off 5 bucks if you don't want a shirt, making it $15 for race-day registration. I've got a lifetime supply of T-shirts so I always take that option when it's available.